Hormones & Midlife Health the Good, the Bad and the UGLY with Nutritionist, Mel
Did you know that perimenopause can start from around 35 years of age?
Today we're going to talk about perimenopause, menopause, and some of the common side effects that can happen to us with one of our Zing Wellbeing expert coaches, Nutritionist and Naturopath, Mel Larkings.
Mel reminds us all that it's not a decline, we're not reaching mid-life and then declining.
It's very much a transition into the next phase of our hormonal health.
Why peri/menopause starts early for some?
Perimenopause starts at different stages for everyone.
Mel shares, people like myself, having a hysterectomy. Even though I retained my ovaries, there is no blood flow to the organs anymore to the uterus. So that is going to affect my hormonal health. Research shows that I will go through menopause slightly earlier.
Other factors that may see you go through peri/menopause earlier include chronic stress, poor sleep, burn out, nutritional deficiencies.
When B vitamins, magnesium, and especially fats in general, so when the macro nutrients are low, that will mean that you transition earlier because we don't have the fats needed to make the hormones in abundance anymore.
Also smoking, vaping, other recreational drugs and over consuming alcohol will affect our hormonal health.
Autoimmune disease, definitely, thyroid conditions, definitely. And the biggest factor in your menopause journey, and when you are likely to start perimenopause is your family history.
Genetics
So, genetics play a huge part, and we see most women follow in their mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and aunts footsteps. We will transition around the same time as them. Talk to your elder women in your family. When it happened, what it was like for them, they might give you a bit of insight.
The biggest thing about perimeonopause and the negative effects of menopause is when it is a surprise. When you don't know what's going on.
That's really hard for women, you know, they get a bit of brain fog, they're getting a bit hot, they feel like they're putting on extra weight. They might feel a bit sad or anxious, they feel really fatigued.
These are all the negative side effects of menopause. And you know, the conversation should be about understanding healthy shifts that occur during this time, not necessarily talking about these negative things, because it can be a beautiful time in life, and when we call it a transition, it's because we want to move from one phase, the phase that we're currently in, to the next phase of our life.
The way that we do that is we detoxify quite a lot of our estrogen from our body. We no longer need it. We are not reproductive be, trying to be fertile in this phase of our life.
Naturally our body starts to do this in preparation for the next phase, and that means no periods, you know? That's a big bonus. Like, I would highly recommend a hysterectomy just to have no periods, because, they were absolutely awful for me.
So, what happens to our hormones in midlife?
Mel says, Perimenopause will typically begin around 40. It might start sometimes from 35 onwards into the late 30s. It can last several years. I have a 92 year old patient who still gets the occasional hot flush, so Sorry ladies, I've done everything I can.
Our hormone levels start to fluctuate, they can be quite dramatic. That's when we get our hot flushes.
The first hormone that begins to decline is progesterone.
It helps with sleep, and mood regulation. With less progesterone available, sometimes we start to see that we are feeling a little bit more anxious and irritable.
You can get a bit of insomnia and you can also start to develop like PMS, that maybe you didn't have before, PMS like symptoms, pre-mental syndrome, as well as PMDD, which is generally considered a category of disease if you like on its own, but it's pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder and it can be like a severe depression before the period.
Estrogen is the second thing that starts to go a bit haywire.
It can swing quite dramatically during this time, and that leaves our skin not looking so supple anymore. It's also important for memory as well, cognition, definitely mood.
It is really important for bone density. So, we see a decrease in overall density of our bone minerals as our estrogen declines, which is why we see osteopeneia, which is pre-ostherosclerosis happens quite commonly post menopause or during the end of our menopause.
Looking at that hormonal profile if you still need a bit of estrogen, there's a beautiful gel, you can rub on, you can get progesterone as well.
The other thing that estrogen's really important for is the elasticity, not just of our skin, but also of all the blood vessels and stuff.
You may have never had high blood pressure in your whole life, but as you transition, perimenopause, menopause, your estrogen starts to drop, those things become a little bit harder, your blood pressure may rise, and your cholesterol may rise as well in your blood test from the doctor. That’s really common.
We need to make sure that we are looking after our cardiovascular health as women who are menopausal because it is often kind of overlooked, especially if we don't have a history of it.
The decline of estrogen is one reason why many of us will feel super fatigued. We will gain weight. This is the key kind of weight hormone if you like.
We definitely notice changes in our hair and skin.
Testosterone is our third and final kind of hormone that we're going to talk about for reproductive purposes.
Testosterone, we often forget about it, we overlook it, some women have too much, some women don't have a whole lot, but it will also decline.
It's still really essential for us to have some, and it's important for libido. So, this is a big one.
Many women with no libido or low libido, because their testosterone has declined.
It also helps us maintain muscle mass, really important. Energy, and motivation.
It is really important that we keep an eye on all of these symptoms and work out how best to support our hormonal transition. We can do it with herbs.
There are herbs that help to control all of these hormones to some degree.
The other two things that I will mentionare the reproductive hormones, cortisol is one of our stress hormones and the metabolic hormone insulin.
They begin to take center stage. Your cortisol and your insulin kind of take over a little bit as your estrogen and your progesterone decline and you know cortisol if it's not well regulated you will feel super stressed, a little bit wired, anxious, it's our go hormone, it's our run away from the beast hormone. So we really want to try and manage that as best as we can.
What can help with the hormone changes?
Mel says, food is going to help you out immensely, and also movement will help, plus some lifestyle factors.
Mel has created some great recipes and meal plans for Zing Wellbeing around perimenopause and menopause. You can find them all on the App.
Best foods to eat
While some foods will improve menopause symptoms, some foods will exacerbate those symptoms.
For example, some foods and herbs are heating. We're not going to want them if we're having hot flushes, for example.
Other foods are cooling, so we want to have them if there's heat in the body, if we want to help expel that heat.
The other thing is if we think about this stage in our life as putting quite a lot of burden on our liver, we can support our liver by having loads of green leafy foods, fruits, and veggies, lots of broccoli and foods that are going to help detoxify the liver.
You can also look at the Zing Wellbeing anti-inflammatory meal planner, that's going to help immensely.
We want to keep the inflammation down, inflammation's going to make this whole picture worse. We want to keep the inflammation down as much as possible.
Your body is doing a massive hormonal job. You might need a little extra sleep. You might need a little bit of time out as well.
It is a massive job for our organs, especially our excretory organs. So, we need to support it.
Avoid some of the things that are going to make us worse, like toxins, and inflammatory foods, process foods. um caffeine and alcohol aren't great during this time.
Spicy foods can sometimes make it worse. Sugary foods will make it worse, especially if you've got that insulin involvement, so if you do have the spare tire situation going on.
Every hormone in your body requires raw materials. A lot of that is in a fat base.
So, to support our hormonal health with food, we need to be eating lots of good, healthy fats.
We need loads of nutrients, B vitamins in particular, magnesium, you could put some chromium in if you are struggling with the insulin side of things and the weight, protein and fat, all the way.
We need extra protein right now because we're not going to be maintaining the muscle mass that we're used to.
We need to include that really high quality protein, eggs, fish, tofu, legumes, lentils, healthy fats, avocados, nuts, seeds, chia seeds are amazing, olive oils, and loads of fibre.
Try Zing Wellbeing protein powder or Wellness Smoothie to help!
Fibre will make it stabilize your hormones, rather than put them on the roller coaster. So, that's really important. If you don't poo, pooing can be a huge issue during this time of life. If you don't poo, we need to fix it. You will have a worse menopause all time if you are constipated.
We need to stay really hydrated.
That is so important.
Mel shares, I was feeling nauseous for a couple of days in a row when I woke up. It was probably a week before I realized I was dehydrated. I had forgotten. I was so busy with patients that I just wasn't drinking as much water as I normally would.
I was actually feeling sick in the mornings because I was waking up so dehydrated.
So don't underestimate the power of eating regular balanced meals, of having good quality water and maintaining your blood sugar levels.
Avoiding excessive caffeine and sugar and alcohol, but if you are going to have it, then have it on a tummy full of food. We don't want caffeine on an empty tummy any time let alone this time of life.
Include phytoestrogen in your diet. So phytoestrogens are basically like plant-based estrogen that will will help out your estrogen balance. Things like flax seeds, lentils, chickpeas, fermented soy, tempe, miso. You can also get them in a supplement.
Sometimes we use soy isoflavnoid in a supplement to assist with the estrogen decline.
Get moving!
Mel says, Strength training is probably your best bet right now.
We really want to keep the bones healthy as well.
So, strength training will do that. You want a bit of cardio if there is a weight concern, also to keep your heart healthy, but strength training 2-3 times a week will preserve your muscle mass, it will boost your mood, it will boost your metabolism, it will improve insulin sensitivity.
You can do walking, yoga, pilates, all those things as well.
Great nervous system regulation, it will reduce cortisol, it will move those toxins through the body and help the liver out as well.
You can find lots of great strengthening workouts, pilates and Yoga on the Zing Wellbeing App.
SLEEP!
If we're not sleeping enough, we can not do this big job that we need to.
So sleep is not a luxury. It is essential hormone therapy.
You need a minimum of 7hrs, 8hrs is ideal. 9hrs could even be what you need right now.
Watch Behaviour Coach Rae's great info on Sleep habits.
Limit stress
Stress is also something that we need to try and manage during this time. If you're finding it really hard to manage your stress, your nervous system will be overloaded and everything's going to be harder.
Your body just can't work with it. So, deep breathing, gentle stretching, time in nature, walking, journaling, whatever you need to do, whatever works for you.
Have a look at Life Coach Beck's info on dealing with stress.
Mel adds, It's really important that you understand your hormonal health, your hormonal shifts, your hormonal changes and just make those small really important consistent shifts that are going to be the best treatment for your journey. It is a journey, it's a transition, it's a journey.
It is a really powerful time to come back to yourself and just really enjoy this time of life.
It can really be a time of growth.
Watch Mel's informative video below